All Along
by fRiEnDsFaNaTiC
Summary: JavaJunkie, Literati undertones. With Rory and Jess away at college, Luke and Lorelai finally get it together. I know the summary sucks.
1. Chapter One Hugs and Kisses

Hey guys, thanks for checking this out! I hope this JavaJunkie makes up for my Trory/JavaJunkie, I'm With You, which I haven't added onto in forever, but I plan to soon. Anyway, I hope you like! The second chapter will be up soon. Please review!  
  
Disclaimer : I neither claim to nor own anything except my awesome Paul Frank pajama pants and a cute furry hat that makes me feel very J.Lo. All characters belong to Amy Sherman-Palladino (who is a goddess, of course) and all those other people.  
  
Luke wiped down the counter, watching the door for Rory and Lorelai. She was leaving today, Rory. He didn't know what Lorelai was going to do. Luke was going to miss her too. She was practically his daughter, and they all knew it. His eyes followed as they rounded the corner and entered the diner. Both of their faces were red from crying. They settled for a side table next to the window.  
  
He tried to be nonchalant as he made his way around the counter to their table. He cleared his voice and poured their coffee. "Hey."  
  
"Morning Luke." Lorelai answered softly, looking up at him gratefully.  
  
"Thanks." Rory chimed in.  
  
"Do you guys want anything else?"  
  
"Not really."  
  
"No."  
  
"Okay," Luke replied gently, "Call me if you need anything." He walked into the kitchen and grabbed Kirk's egg white omelet with bacon.  
  
He had known today would be different, but it was still a shock for them to not want food.  
  
He set the plate down, refilled Kirk's mug, and threw seven Equal's toward him. Jess came barging down the stairs, stopping abruptly when he saw Rory. He stared at her for a moment, and then glanced over to Luke, who was fiddling absentmindedly with the cash register, trying to look busy. He took a deep breath and started over to Rory.  
  
"Hey." He instinctively ran his hand over her head and through her soft hair. He didn't sit down.  
  
"Morning." She forced her mouth up.  
  
"Hi Jess."  
  
"Lorelai." He acknowledged.  
  
Jess stood there. On one hand, he wanted to sit down next to Rory and hold her. He knew she would start bawling, but he liked that he was the one whose shoulder she cried on. On the other hand, he knew there was a good chance of breaking down himself. It didn't really make a difference, as they were going to be going to school in the same city, Rory at Yale and Jess at University of New Haven. However, Rory was leaving today and Jess was leaving in a week.  
  
He walked behind the counter and poured himself a mug of coffee. The two men watched as Rory and Lorelai simultaneously sipped their coffee. Luke was thankful that the diner was empty on this hazy summer morning, as Kirk had just left. He busied himself in the kitchen, but Jess just stood, leaning on the counter, staring into his coffee.  
  
"Luke!" Lorelai called. He sighed, grabbed the doggy bag he had been staring at, and walked out of the kitchen. Rory was looking at the floor, blinking back tears. "We have to go." She explained.  
  
Luke nodded and cleared his throat. He wasn't good at this stuff. Before he could do anything, Rory hugged him. He relaxed and clumsily patted her back, hugging her too. "Thank you for being here, Luke." He felt one of her tears hit his shirt.  
  
"I'm proud of you, Rory." She pulled back, laughing at herself, and wiped her tears.  
  
"Thanks."  
  
"And I'm glad you're going to school closer to home." He smiled.  
  
"Me too."  
  
"Here." He held out the doggy bag. "It's a burger for later."  
  
"Thank you." Rory looked over at Jess and started sniffling as she walked over to him. Luke turned to Lorelai and she held out her arms. He somewhat reluctantly returned the favor.  
  
"Rory was right - thanks for being here, Luke. Thank you for being here for Rory and me, and thank you for being a dad to her." She sniffed.  
  
"You know I love her."  
  
"I know you do." She squeezed him one last time and broke away. "I'll see you later."  
  
"I'll be waiting." They were quiet - only Rory's stifled sobs were heard as the four walked outside to the car. Rory looked up at Luke and let go of Jess's hand.  
  
"Bye Luke." They hugged once more.  
  
"Good luck, Rory. I'll see you soon." She nodded. Hesitant and quick at the same time, she kissed his cheek. He felt his face burn and jammed his hands in his pockets.  
  
She and Jess kissed and rested against each other. "I'll see you in a week, Ror."  
  
"Ok."  
  
"C'mon babe, it's time to go." Lorelai wrapped her arm around her daughter, but Rory sped to the passenger's side and jumped in, sobbing. "Bye guys, I'll see you later." She got in the car and with one last look, drove away.  
  
Jess wiped his jaw. "I'm going out." He said, walking away. Luke didn't respond.  
  
Meanwhile, as they drove away .  
  
"Mom?"  
  
"Yeah hun?"  
  
"Why are the last goodbyes always the hardest?"  
  
(Later that night, 10 p.m., the diner)  
  
Luke flipped off the main lights, dimming the diner. The sound of "I Love Lucy" floated downstairs. Jess had come back two hours after Rory left and stayed upstairs all day. He sat down in front of the counter, the day's receipts in front of him. Just as he started going through everything, there was a knock on the diner door. He spun around. It was Lorelai.  
  
He got up and went over to unlock the door. "Hey."  
  
"Hey." She responded tiredly.  
  
"Rory all settled?" He led her over to the counter.  
  
"Yeah. Some of her stuff is unpacked already." Lorelai sat down. "Her roommate's nice too, her name's Emily. Those castle dorms still scare the crap out of me, though. We also found this diner right near the school, this little place called Clark's. Actually," She looked around, "it's bigger than this place. It's across from the grad dorms."  
  
"That's good, Rory has a place to eat out."  
  
"Yeah." She took a sip of the coffee he had given her. "I miss her already, Luke." She started silently crying, rubbing her face with her hands. He came around from the behind the register, and sat down next to her.  
  
"I know. But you'll be fine." She blinked. "Hey, come here." He stood up and held out his arms, which she gratefully accepted.  
  
Luke stood there, trying to ignore the pang he felt.  
  
"You've been hugging a lot today - isn't this against your oath as the flannel-clad hermit?" She joked as they sat down again.  
  
"I'm not a hermit." Lorelai just looked at him. "I'm not." He defended.  
  
"Ok." Her eyes drifted to a couple walking by, holding hands. Luke followed her gaze. "God, I miss that."  
  
"What, sweaty palms?" She playfully rolled her eyes.  
  
"No. Holding hands, going for walks late on summer nights."  
  
"When have you ever done that? It's hot and cold at the same time and there are mosquitoes."  
  
"It's the idea."  
  
"I miss it too." He admitted quietly, nodding when her eyes questioned his words. "I miss being in a relationship." Luke watched as she faced the door again. "Hey, why don't we do something." Lorelai swiveled and he felt his face sting, "sometime?"  
  
"Really?"  
  
"You'll be complaining about being lonely, soon there will be less movement up and down the stairs here." He shrugged, "I'm a hermit."  
  
"That would be nice, Luke." She smiled and agreed genuinely. "I should go." He exhaled loudly.  
  
"Yeah. Ok." They stood and Luke opened the door.  
  
"Thank you." Lorelai leaned up and kissed him on the cheek, her hand on his shoulder. "Night Luke."  
  
"Night." He returned. 


	2. Chapter Two The Ice Salesman

Disclaimer : I still own nothing (though I did buy the Gilmore Girls soundtrack the other day and now "Where you lead." is all I ever listen to). All characters belong to Amy Sherman-Palladino (who is a goddess, of course) and all those other people.  
  
Lorelai tried to fall asleep. She was tried. She was exhausted, actually. Knowing Rory wasn't downstairs was painful, and all she wanted to do was go to sleep so that she wouldn't feel anything.  
  
Then there was the added fact of Luke. And the date. Her and Luke's date. She groaned into the pillow, her cheeks blazing. 'I need medication.'  
  
Her first night without Rory. Well, without Rory living with her. Sighing, Lorelai threw the covers back and trudged downstairs into her daughter's room. She hit the lights and squinted as the brightness pierced her sight. Biting her finger, she scanned the room for anything that reminded her of Rory that she could cuddle. Something with Rory's scent. Essence of Rory. She giggled.  
  
She grabbed a blue sweater out of Rory's dresser and made her way upstairs. Lorelai crawled back into bed and, feeling slightly psychotic, hugged the sweater, and inhaled. Yeah, it smelled like Rory.  
  
Why was the house so damn quiet? How had she never noticed how quiet the house was at night? Quiet is annoying, she concluded. It's boring. Nothing's happening, just . hey! This was her sweater!  
  
(Saturday morning, 10:30. The diner.)  
  
"Hey." Lorelai greeted as she plopped down at the counter.  
  
"Morning." Luke flipped a mug over and poured her coffee. "What artery- clogging entrée would you like this morning?"  
  
"Pralines and cream." She answered in a southern accent.  
  
"Sorry, Miss O'Hara, we're in New England." He rolled his eyes.  
  
"Why, I've never heard such an outrageous thing, Ashley! Off with your head!" She continued her twang.  
  
"Don't call me Ashley."  
  
"Mabel?"  
  
"Hurry up, crazy lady, sane people need food too."  
  
"French toast." Lorelai turned to the empty seat next to her. "Wow. My first breakfast without Rory."  
  
"You've had many breakfasts without Rory."  
  
"You know what I mean. Last night was weird."  
  
"Without Rory."  
  
"Yeah. Very quiet. Annoyingly so. I decided that quiet is extremely annoying." She explained.  
  
"Really."  
  
"Mm. More so than Dawson." Luke raised his eyebrows.  
  
"That's pretty annoying."  
  
"I slept with her sweater." Lorelai admitted placidly.  
  
"Her sweater?"  
  
"I needed something that reminded me of her."  
  
"It'll get easier." He stood there.  
  
"Luke?"  
  
"Yeah?"  
  
"I'm really hungry." She stared at her order on the pad in his hand.  
  
"Be right back." Luke entered the kitchen and gave Caesar Lorelai's order. He grabbed a few plates and, balancing them on his hands and arm, walked out. He set the food down at the table that had ordered it and went around the diner refilling coffee.  
  
"So.." Lorelai began.  
  
"So."  
  
"Do you still want to.Are you still up for.when are we going to uh.get together?" She settled.  
  
"Oh. Right."  
  
"Yeah. I just didn't want it to be awkward. Well, it is, but I didn't want to be awkward for any more time than it has to be. 'Cause then it'd just be hanging there, like the ice salesman after the ice melted." Luke looked at her.  
  
"Well when do you want to hang out?" He returned uncomfortably, shifting his weight.  
  
"Is it a 'hanging out'? Or is it something else?"  
  
"Like?"  
  
"Like a - like a date?" He couldn't believe he was having this conversation. It was too much. Boy, was it hot in there. They looked at each other and shook their heads. "No. Ok. Well, it could be a gathering of friends. A friendly gathering, if you will."  
  
"I think it has to be more than two people for a gathering."  
  
"Well what do you want it to be?"  
  
"How about a um, pre-date?" Luke suggested as he rubbed the back of his neck.  
  
"A pre-date. That works. We could have dinner at my place. You would, of course, bring the dinner."  
  
"Of course."  
  
"On?"  
  
"Tuesday? I can get Caesar and Jess to both work. It's not like Tuesday is that busy anyway."  
  
"Tuesday. Dinner at my place."  
  
"Ok."  
  
"Ok." A bell rang from inside the kitchen.  
  
"That's your French toast." Luke told her and retreated to the kitchen.  
  
"Don't forget the powdered sugar, Mabel!"  
  
(20 minutes later, outside the diner.)  
  
Lorelai closed the diner door behind her and headed across the street. She and Luke had a pre-date. She needed to talk to Sookie. "Sookie?" She called as she entered the house.  
  
"In the kitchen." She shut the door and walked into the kitchen. "Hey, how are you?"  
  
"I'm ok, I think." Lorelai sat down and Sookie followed suit.  
  
"So what's up?"  
  
"I was just over at the diner - ok, actually, it started last night -."  
  
"What did?"  
  
"You'll see."  
  
"Ah. Right, go on." Sookie turned to the counter and set a large bowl of oatmeal chocolate chip cookie dough on the table between her and Lorelai. They both grabbed large wooden spoons from the canister at the center of the table.  
  
"So, anyway, last night after I left New Haven, I went into Luke's for some coffee, and I started crying. Of course, Luke was twitching with discomfort."  
  
"Well of course. Crying around Luke makes him as uncomfortable as Jackson in tight pants." Sookie said, swallowing some cookie dough. Lorelai giggled.  
  
"Or as uncomfortable as Christina Aguilera with clothes on."  
  
"As uncomfortable as Michel around swans."  
  
"As - ok, back to the story."  
  
"Right."  
  
"So I'm crying and Luke offers to hug me."  
  
"Whoa."  
  
"I know, right? So we hug and then this couple walks by holding hands, and we're both like, 'Dude', and then all of a sudden, we're doing something sometime." She raised her eyebrows with emphasis.  
  
"Wow."  
  
"So I go in this morning and we're joking around like usual, trying to ignore the awkwardness of the offer just hanging there."  
  
"Like the salesman without the ice." Sookie put in.  
  
"Exactly. So I finally was like 'So when should we go this?'"  
  
"And?"  
  
"And we're having dinner at my place on Tuesday. But it's not a date."  
  
"What is it? A 'hanging out'?" She suggested.  
  
"No, it's a pre-date. I don't think dinner is a 'hanging out'."  
  
"Right. And Luke agreed to this?"  
  
"It was Luke's idea."  
  
"Oh. Well."  
  
"Well what?"  
  
"Well Luke finally got the courage to do something." Sookie commented gently as Lorelai shoved cookie dough into her mouth.  
  
"Sookie." She groaned.  
  
"Lorelai, I'm serious. How many people have said something to you about this?" She thought for a minute.  
  
"You, Rory, my mother, Babette, Miss Patty, Max, Christopher.Rachel, kind of." She counted on her fingers.  
  
"Have you honestly never thought about Luke that way?" Sookie questioned. Lorelai lowered her gaze and poked the remaining dough with her spoon.  
  
"But he's Luke."  
  
"Yeah, hunny. He's Luke." She said softly. 


	3. Chapter Three Hello Gazelle

As always, I own nothing. And sorry about this chapter, it's just a filler and it's short. Midterms are crrrraaaazzzzzyyyyyy. I hate them. Anyway, I promise the next chapter will have some JavaJunkie action! Yeah, baby! Oook, too many bowls of Lucky Charms for me .  
  
Lorelai looked around her bedroom, which she had just cleaned. Yes, Lorelai had just cleaned her room. It was Tuesday, the day of the "pre- date". She had been at work, but everyone had made her leave because she was so . not Lorelai.  
  
The bedroom was the last room she had cleaned. She didn't bother with Rory's room, as it was already clean, but she had scoured the kitchen and the bathroom and vacuumed the living room twice.  
  
The phone rang. She looked around quickly and ran down the stairs, almost tripping over her own feet. Picking herself up, she dived onto the couch. "Hello?" She answered, breathing heavily.  
  
"Did you throw yourself onto the couch?" Rory's laughing voice came through the phone.  
  
"No, I was in the . doing the . yes."  
  
"Are you nervous yet?"  
  
"It's not nervousness, it's just . it's Luke. It feels really, really weird."  
  
"So are you getting ready?" Lorelai had called Rory and told her about her and Luke after she had left Sookie's.  
  
"Yeah, I just cleaned the house." There was silence. "Ror?"  
  
"I'm sorry, they must be fixing the dorm phones. I thought you said you cleaned the house."  
  
"I did." Silence again.  
  
"Mom, did you sniff some white out?"  
  
"I'm offended! Woe is me, thee fruit of my loom haseth no faitheth!" Lorelai dramatized.  
  
"What the hell was that?"  
  
"Shakespeario."  
  
"Shakespeario?"  
  
"Yes, it's a cross between Shakespeare and Fabio."  
  
"I really don't want to take this conversation any further."  
  
"How's everything?" She asked, going back upstairs into her room.  
  
"Good. I had my first Creative Writing class today."  
  
"Is your textbook 'The Idiot's Guide to Creative Writing'?" Lorelai asked as she started rifling through the clothes in her closet.  
  
"Surprisingly - no. Anyway, it was really cool. The professor worked on the New York Times and wrote for the New York Times Magazine. I think that's gonna be a good class."  
  
"That's great, hun. Any cute boys?" She threw a shirt on her bed.  
  
"I didn't notice."  
  
"Huh? What? What daughter of mine would not notice cute boys? Who are you, Anna Kournikova? I mean honestly, the mole is as big as my thumbnail. And I swear it moves."  
  
"I know!" Rory agreed. "I was flipping channels the other day and I'm positive it was on the other side of his face!"  
  
"Proof! Maybe we should contact the FBI."  
  
"Maybe."  
  
"So, back to my question, what kind of daughter are you?"  
  
"The kind that has a boyfriend."  
  
"So?"  
  
"So I have a boyfriend."  
  
"Okay, but I meant have you seen any cute boys at Yale because cute boys are rarely ever that smart."  
  
"What about Jess? Jess is smart and cute."  
  
"Yes, but he's a bad boy. Bad boy's don't go to Yale." Lorelai shuffled the clothes that were scattered on her bed.  
  
"Sounds like a Hilary Swank movie." Rory commented. "So, what are you going to wear tonight?"  
  
"That's what I'm trying to figure out. Help me!"  
  
"Well, let's see. It's your first date -."  
  
"It's not a date." Lorelai interrupted.  
  
"Right, I'm sorry. Pre-date. Silly me. So it's a pre-date. You guys are having dinner at our house. Luke will be wearing jeans, a plaid flannel shirt, and a backwards baseball cap. I wouldn't go all out, Mom."  
  
"So what should I wear?"  
  
"Jeans and a casual shirt." Rory decided.  
  
"What jeans?"  
  
"The ones that are faded in the middle and whiskered. They make your butt look really cute."  
  
"Hmm, well I'll have to wear these more often." She said, pulling them out of the dresser drawer.  
  
"Maybe you can have a casual day at work."  
  
"A cute butt day."  
  
"Michel would love a chance to show off the wonders his 'Gazelle' has done. Maybe he could grow a ponytail and be in the infomercials."  
  
"Eww, back to clothing please. What shirt?"  
  
"How about the white one with the pastel 'Hello Kitty' design?" Rory suggested.  
  
"Thank God you inherited my fashion sense." Lorelai rifled through the laundry basket and finally yanked the shirt out from underneath her red SpongeBob sweatshirt. "Anyway, I'm gonna go take a bath."  
  
"And a shower, and another bath."  
  
"Well, I just cleaned, and now I have to wash the cleaning crap off of me, and that might take a while. I'll talk to you later babe."  
  
"Call me as soon as he leaves! I want all the details."  
  
"I promise." Lorelai hung up and threw the phone on the bed. She picked up the remaining clothes and dumped them into a chair in the corner before heading off to the bathroom 


	4. Author's Note

Hey, guys, I'm sorry about this author's note, I'll take it down when I put the next chapter up. This week I've had midterms and really bad writer's block . too many good shows on Thursday. I promise I'll work on it tomorrow. Get ready for some JavaJunkie action! Muah, *me* 


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